Yearly Archives: 2009

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Mine safety – narrative research with Deloitte

Towards the end of 2008 we partnered with Deloitte Consulting on a research project aimed at the field of mine safety. We are painfully aware of how mine safety needs to improve, especially within the South African deep level mining context. Nicolaas Herholdt approached us to partner with him in developing a Point of View that uncovers new and important insights into mine safety that might assist in addressing the way in which safety statistics have plateaued. The reality is that despite all the [...]

The KM contradiction

I've been pondering the concept of Knowledge Management (KM).  Experts in the field such as Dave Snowden have long been debating whether or not KM has outlived it's purpose.  Many people wonder if it ever had a real value proposition, as there are many large organisations who spent millions on KM, but received very little of the value they anticipated.  In part this is due to the unfortunate confusion of Knowledge Management with Information Management as well as the over-focus on IT [...]

Fascinating failure

Why are we so afraid to admit to making a mistake?  Failure, it seems, is universally seen as something to be avoided at all costs.  In a recent project where we investigated safety practices in mining, one of the key issues we identified was the tendency to try to hide failure by shifting blame, not reporting near misses, and scape-goating.  This, in an industry where learning from other's mistakes can save lives. I don't know about you, but I tend [...]

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